People are posting the films they didn't get in the advance order process, i.e. films that will likely still not be available when you go to select something else on Monday. There's always a chance films could free up if people exchange in tickets they did get, but I wouldn't put all your eggs in that basket. So if you are planning tonight what alternates you want to pick, take this list into account so you don't waste your time when you get to the front of the line.

For those participating in the advance order process, you will be able to pick up your tickets (or vouchers for films that were sold out) starting on Monday, September 1, 2008, at the Toronto Life Square box office only, starting at 10:00 AM.

To pick up your tickets, you will need your Pick-Up Voucher. You will exchange this for your tickets and/or vouchers.

If you received all your picks, then I would recommend that you don't show up first thing in the morning, as the lines will be long; go later in the day once the pick-up line has died down. You should have received an e-mail confirmation from the festival outlining the tickets you did get; if you didn't get an e-mail, then as commenter Nicole pointed out, you can go the festival web site, click the Buy Tickets link, and then select the option for checking the status of your order, as it will show you exactly what the confirmation e-mail does. If you see any line items in the confirmation for a Regular Top-Up Voucher, then that means you didn't get some of your picks. The confirmation will outline how many of these vouchers you have, and thus how many alternate picks you will have to make.

If you have top-up vouchers because you couldn't get all your selections, then you will be able to line up on Monday in a separate line (after picking up your tickets and vouchers) to select new films. Be warned, this process can take several hours, so if you know that you didn't get all your films, plan ahead. Figure out what gaps you have in your schedule, and then select other films that you would like to see, but make sure you select a lot of alternates. By the time you get to the front of the box office, a number of your choices may already be sold out. The festival posts big boards outlining all the films in the schedule and which ones have been sold out.

Note that once the festival starts this Thursday, additional tickets will likely be released for all the showings, so if there was something you really wanted, you can try searching for tickets then. Also, as other commenters have posted in the past, some people will exchange movies they did get in their order for others on the Monday pickup day, so it is possible that tickets may open up periodically during the day even if the big signs say the screenings are sold out.

Also, you don't have to use your top-up vouchers on Monday. You can use them at any time during the festival, once it starts on Thursday.

One other tip, make sure you are in the correct line on Monday, so you don't spend hours in the wrong one. Look for the festival volunteers wearing festival t-shirts or headsets/clipboards, and ask which line you should be in.

I'll be there bright and early on Monday since my friend and I have a few vouchers to use, so I'll twitter from the line periodically to indicate how long it is and how fast it is moving (or not :-)).

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Received an e-mail from the festival outlining some last-minute changes, cancellations, and reschedulings. Lucky, these don't seem to have affected any of the films on my list unless my first choices don't come through for our box 49 order. The problems seem to stem mainly from the advance order book not corresponding to the official film schedule.

This may affect you in that if you picked a cancelled film and didn't provide a backup, you will receive a voucher. If you picked a film that moved timeslots, that could be a a big problem, as it might then conflict with another of your choices. If you do have an issue, I'm guessing that you'll likely have to wait until Monday, September 1 to make any changes.

Saturday Sept 6 at Varsity 8MIRACLE AT ST. ANNAScreening has been cancelled(The official schedule doesn't actually show a screening on that day, but the advance order book did)

Wednesday Sept 10 at RyersonSLUMDOG MILLIONAIRECorrect start time is 3:15pm(The official schedule and the advance order book already shows a start time of 3:15 PM)

Friday Sept 12 at Scotiabank 4IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T'AIMECorrect start time is 11:45am(The official schedule showed an original start time of 1:45 PM, but the advance order book showed 11:45 AM)

Friday Sept 12 at Varsity 8NEW YORK I LOVE YOU at 6:00pmScreening has been cancelled(The official schedule doesn't actually show a screening on that day, but the advance order book did)

Friday Sept 12 at AMC 3BLOOD TRAILCorrect start time is 8:15pm(The official schedule already shows a start time of 8:15 PM, but the advance order boo had 9:00 PM)

Saturday Sept 13 at Varsity 2MESRINE is not playing at 6:45pm(as listed in the Official Film Schedule calendar)Correct title for this slot isSIN TREGUA (aka UNWANTED WITNESS)

Title changes:

UNWANTED WITNESS is now known as SIN TREGUAMESRINE aka PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, PART 1 is now known as L'INSTINCT DE MORT

Due to unforeseen circumstances, there will be only one screening of PARIS, NOT FRANCE: Tuesday, Sept. 9, 6pm, Ryerson.An additional public screening of LYMELIFE will replace the second public screening of PARIS, NOT FRANCE: Thursday, Sept. 11, 3pm, Ryerson.An additional public screening of LOVELY, STILL will replace the third public screening of PARIS, NOT FRANCE: Saturday, Sept. 13, 5:45pm, AMC 2.

If you didn't participate in the advance order process this year, and you didn't buy a package with pre-selected films, and you're wondering how to see films at the festival, here's what you can do:

Buy tickets right now for films showing at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin. There are still tickets available for a number of these screenings, especially later in the festival.

Starting Wednesday, September 3, 2008, you will be able to purchase tickets for all screenings.

Once the festival starts on September 4, 2008, if a film you want to see is sold out, you can get in the rush line at the theatre showing the film, before the screening. People in this line will have the opportunity to buy any tickets that become available, although there's no guarantee that there will be any, or that there will be enough for everyone in the rush line.

To buy tickets before the day of the screening, you can do the following:

Online, at http://tiff08.ca/. Click the Buy Tickets link at the top right of any page on the site.

To buy tickets the day of the screening, you can use any of the above methods, or starting one hour before the first screening of anything that day at the theatre, you can buy directly from the theatre box office. These box offices are at:

Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre

The Wintergarden Theatre

AMC Yonge & Dundas 24

Varsity

Scotiabank

Ryerson

Isabel Bader

Cumberland

Jackman Hall

Note these box offices will only sell same-day tickets. You will not be able to buy tickets for other movies on other days.

If you order over the internet or the phone, you can pick up your tickets from the Manulife Centre, the Toronto Life Square, or the Roy Thomson Hall box offices. You can also pick up your tickets at the box office of the theatre showing the first film in your order, provided you get there at least an hour before the screening starts.

The festival accepts cash, debit, and Visa (no other types of credit cards are accepted).

As I tweeted earlier, box 9 was drawn as the starting point for the 2008 advance order lottery process. The festival is reporting that there are 78 boxes in total (although it doesn't mention if that includes the donor boxes or not). The donor orders will be processed first, then the festival will start processing box 9, 10, 11, etc., until it gets to #78, then they will do boxes 1 to 8.

My friend dropped off the other half of our orders this morning at 10:30, and ended up in box #49. The Benefactor donor box looked to be about 80% full at the time.

As mentioned in a previous post, the festival will now start processing the advanced orders. If you provided an e-mail address, the festival will (usually) e-mail you once your order has been processed, letting you know which films you got, and which ones you didn't (for which they will give you vouchers to select other films). You pick up your actual tickets or vouchers this Monday, September 1 at the Toronto Life Square box office, starting at 10:00 AM.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Just a reminder, tomorrow, Friday, August 29, 2008, at 1:00 PM is the deadline for submitting any Advance Order Books, in order to participate in the advance ticket process. If you fail to submit by this time, then your order will get processed after everyone else. Orders must be dropped off at the Toronto Life Square box office at Yonge and Dundas.

After this Friday at 1:00 PM, the festival will start processing the advance orders. They will start with donor orders, then move through all other orders (see my previous post on the ticket process for more details). Generally speaking, they will e-mail you once your order has been processed, letting you know which of your selections you got. If you didn't get everything you selected because the film was already sold out, you will receive vouchers that you can use to select other films starting Monday, September 1. Note that usually every year there are some people who don't seem to receive e-mails for whatever reason, but that's not an indication that your order hasn't been processed.

You can pick up your tickets starting the morning of Monday, September 1, at the Toronto Life Square box office. If you received all your selections, then there is no need to line up first thing in the morning. If you didn't, then you can pick up your tickets and vouchers, and then join a different line to select new films (or you can use your vouchers during the festival once it has started).

My friend dropped off my order book today (Thursday morning), and it ended up in lucky box #13.

The interesting thing he saw was the donor drop off boxes. Only the top 6 levels of donors get priority before everyone else in the draw. In descending order, they are:

52/7 Circle (donation of $5,000 or more)

Gold (donation of $3,500)

Silver Screen (donation of $2,000)

Film Club (donation of $1,000)

Associate (donation of $500)

Benefactor (donation of $250)

Anything below $250 does not receive any benefits in the lottery.

There looked to be a couple of forms in each of the donor boxes (a bit more in the Benefactor box), and there wasn't any obvious indication that there would be multiple boxes needed for each level, but we'll have to see how the lottery goes this year.

Shannon the Movie Moxie has some photos of the lineup and box office at Toronto Life Square:

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

My preliminary film list for this year is below. We'll see by Monday which films I managed to get. Since I do have a few films with bigger names, it wouldn't surprise me if I didn't get all of the films in my list. My friend is going to drop this order off on Thursday, so I'll post the box number when I get it, so people can get an idea of how things are progressing this year.

$5 a Day: I think Christopher Walken could be really fun to watch in this. Saw Amanda Peet at the festival before in Griffin & Phoenix.

Achilles and the Tortoise: I saw both Takeshis' and Glory to the Filmmaker! at the festival in previous years, and as impenenetrable as Takeshi Kitano can be sometimes, his films are always interesting.

All Around Us

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World

The Brothers Bloom

Un Conte de Noel: Saw Mathieum Amalric in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly last year at the fest, and Anne Consigny a few years back in L'Equipier. Plus, it has Catherine Deneuve.

Control Alt Delete: Have to see at least one funny Canadian film (last year was Young People F-ing, and Sonja Bennett from that film is in this one as well). Plus, having had to do Y2K conversion work myself, I figure this film will be that much funnier.

Detroit Metal City: Teen wants to become a pop singer but ends up fronting a death metal band? Plus it's in Japanese? Can't go wrong with that. Plus, it has Gene Simmons.

L'Heure d'ete: It wouldn't be a festival if I didn't see a Juliette Binoche film. I saw Olivier Assayas at the festival back in 2004 with Clean, and Binoche in Quelques jours en septembre and Paris, je t'aime in 2006, and Le Voyage du ballon rouge (Flight of the Red Balloon) in 2007

The Hurt Locker

It Might Get Loud: sounds (no pun intended) like a really interesting documentary.

JCVD: I hear Jean-Claude Van Damme is pretty funny when he's being self-depricating.

New York, I Love You: I saw Paris, je t'aime back in 2006, plus I like New York, so figured why not.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: I saw Michael Cera last year with Juno (which went on to be a monster hit), and I remember Kat Dennings from the 40-Year Old Virgin.

Picasso & Braque Go to the Movies (Mavericks panel): Sounds like it could be a good discussion, and I saw Julian Schnabel last year at the fest with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It was at the Elgin (guess that's not going to happen this year!) and he spoke for a bit before the movie.

Radio Love

The Real Shaolin

The Sky Crawlers: I usually end up seeing one anime-type film each year. Last year was Vexille, Renaissance the year before that. Plus, I liked director Mamoru Oshii's work in Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, and Jin-Roh.

Synecdoche, New York: I figure with Charlie Kaufman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, how can you go wrong? (hopefully I don't end up eating those words :-)) Guess the last time I saw Hoffman and Keener together was in Capote.

Tulpan: needed to get at least one film that wasn't a documentary, or based in western Europe, North America, or Japan. Story sounded like it could be engaging.

White Night Wedding: have to see at least one Scandanavian film each year (Jar City in 2007, Jade Warrior and Falkenberg Farewell in 2006, Producing Adults in 2004).

The Wrestler: Seems like this role would be a good fit for Mickey Rourke. Picked but didn't get Aronofsky's The Fountain in 2006 (although it's probably debatable whether that was a good thing or not).

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: I like Seth Rogan (although he's a bit overexposed these days) and Elizabeth Banks (guess the 40-Year Old Virgin was the last time they were together in film), and I saw Banks in person last year at the premiere of Bill with Aaron Eckhart. What I'm really hoping for is a Q&A with director Kevin Smith. If you've never seen An Evening With Kevin Smith, which shows him speaking at college campuses, rattling off stories about his professional and personal life, you don't know what you're missing.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

In case you wondering how to fill out an order form, you'll need the following:

1. The Official Film Schedule:

2. The Advance Order Book:

3. A yellow highlighter.

4. A green highlighter.

Let's consider an example where you want to see the film L'Annulaire on one of the days of the festival. Note this is an example from a previous year. The order form looks as follows:

First, write the number of tickets you want in the box labeled "1st" next to the name of the film. In this example, we want 2 tickets. This will represent your first choice for this timeslot.

Next, highlight the name of the film with a yellow highlighter (you will have received one if you picked up a programme book, otherwise supply your own). Note the colour MUST be yellow. Do NOT highlight the barcode.

Next, find a film around the same time that will be your backup choice if your first choice is already full when they get around to processing your order form. Note this step is optional. If you do not specify a backup film and your first choice is full, you will receive a ticket voucher which you can redeem at a later date for another film at the festival.

In this example, Battle in Heaven will be the backup choice. Next to your backup film, write the number of tickets you want in the box labeled "2nd". In this example we still want 2 tickets.

Next, highlight the name of the backup film with a green highlighter (you will have received one if you picked up a programme book, otherwise supply your own). Note the colour MUST be green. Do NOT highlight the barcode.

Your form should look as follows:

Repeat this process until you run out of coupons or choices. For example, if you ordered a 10-ticket Package, and you wanted 2 tickets for each film, you would select 5 1st choice films and optionally, 5 2nd choice backups. If your second choice for a film is not close to the first choice, or it is not obvious what or where the second choice is, feel free to write a note or draw an arrow, but don't write over any of the barcodes, and don't make things difficult for the festival staff by making it complicated.

Note the restrictions on your particular package when selecting films, to ensure your order is processed correctly:

Festival Package: 1 ticket per screening, maximum of 50 tickets across all screenings in the order, no screenings at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room

Festival Lite Package: 1 ticket per screening (this is less than in previous years), maximum of 30 tickets across all screenings in the order, no screenings at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room

Daytime Package: 1 ticket per screening, maximum of 25 tickets across all screenings in the order, screenings must start before 5:01 PM, no screenings at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room

Daytime Lite Package: 1 ticket per screening, maximum of 15 tickets across all screenings in the order, screenings must start before 5:01 PM, no screenings at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room

10-ticket Package: 4 tickets per screening (this is less than in previous years), maximum of 10 tickets across all screenings in the order, no screenings at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room

Family Package: 4 tickets to 2 out of the 4 films in the Sprockets Family Zone programme.

You can place all your choices in a single Advance Order Book, regardless of how many passes or packages you bought. If you bought 3 10-ticket Packages, then all 30 1st choices and all 30 2nd choices can go in the same book.

For any tickets that you choose not to use in the advance order process, or any choices that can't be filled because the film is sold out, you will receive vouchers that you can use towards other films with availability. You can do this alternate selection on September 1 when you pick up your completed order, or during the festival itself.

When selecting films, don't forget to account for the following:

Films may not start or end on time

Times in the schedule do not include time for Q&A sessions after the film if the director or actors are present

You should account for travel time between theatres, as some are far apart from one another

Once you have finished picking your films and filling out the Advanced Order Book, ensure you fill out the "Ticket Order Form" information at the bottom of page 3 of the Advance Order Book. If you want the festival to call you in the event of any difficulties regardless of the time of day or night, you could place a note on the form, but that's not a guarantee the festival will call. Note they process orders around the clock, so they could call you in the middle of the night if you so note.

Once you have filled out that information, place the completed Advance Order Book in the envelope you received when you picked up your form:

Fill out the "Total Number of Tickets Requested in this order" box at the top right of the envelope. If you have 3 10-film packages, then you would write 30 in this box.

Fill out the contact information on the envelope. If you include an e-mail address, then the festival should notify you by e-mail which of your choices were filled and which were not when they have finished processing your order. If you bought the pass or 10-film package for someone else, ensure their name is also included on the form in the spot provided.

Take the Drop Off Voucher that you should have received in the mail a while ago and place it in the envelope window. Do NOT include the Pick Up Voucher; you need to keep that to pick up your completed order starting Monday, September 1 at 10:00 AM at the Toronto Life Square box office.

Do NOT seal the envelope; leave the flap open or tuck it in, but do not seal it.

If you have a Festival or Daytime Package, then I believe you submit one envelope per Package. If you bought multiple 10-ticket Packages under your name in one order/transaction, then you will submit one envelope for all the packages. Basically, you should have one envelope per Drop Off Voucher that you have.

Drop off the envelope at the Toronto Life Square box office before 1:00 PM on Friday, August 29 (that's this Friday!). Note this is the only box office that will accept these forms. If you do not turn in your envelope by 1:00 PM on Friday, then you will miss the lottery, and your form will be processed after everyone else's.

The festival staff then spends the weekend processing orders. You can then line up at the Toronto Life Square box office any time from Monday, September 1 at 10:00 AM onwards to pick up your completed forms and see what movies you received. Take your Pick Up vouchers with you to exchange them for your processed orders. If you receive an e-mail from the festival saying you got all your choices, then I would recommend that you do NOT show up first thing in the morning, as there will be long wait (Shannon the Movie Moxie spent 6-1/2 hours in line last year to get her orders and make alternate selections). If you didn't receive all your picks, then you should line up in the morning, as you will receive ticket vouchers in place of your missed picks. You can then move to another line to immediately use those vouchers to pick other films that are still available; alternatively, you can wait to use those vouchers during the festival.

Now, why don't you need to speed through getting your Advance Order Book completed as soon as possible? Because the festival has a lottery system to determine from what point they start processing orders. Therefore, there is no inherent benefit to getting your order forms returned early. Here's how the system works:

1. The festival starts with a whole bunch of empty boxes, numbered sequentially.

2. As people turn in their order forms, the forms are placed in the lowest numbered box that has room:

Here we can see completed forms being placed in box #1.

3. Once a box is full, forms are placed in the next available box, in this case box #2:

4. And once that box is full, they move to the next one, in this case box #3:

5. Once all forms have been received by the deadline, the festival has a bunch of filled, numbered boxes:

6. They then randomly draw a number from 1 to whatever the highest number box they have, in this example, 80. The number drawn represents the box number from which the festival starts processing orders. Assume for this example that 33 was the number drawn:

The festival starts processing the forms in box #33. Once they have processed all the forms in the box, they move to the next one in numerical order, in this case #34. They continue until they reach the highest numbered box, here #80. Once they finish with that box, they loop back around to box #1 and start moving upwards, until they reach the box one number before the one drawn (#32). The festival usually sends e-mails out letting you know which of your choices you have gotten.

At this point, all advanced orders have been processed and will be ready for pickup. In this example, if you were lucky enough to be in box #33, you would've gotten all your picks. But if you were in box #32, you probably won't get a lot of your picks. In that case, for each pick that wasn't fulfilled you typically receive a coupon which you can use to select a film from whatever still has tickets available. You can use these coupons any time during the duration of the festival.

Note that there is a twist to the process this year. Festival patrons that donated at least $250 to the festival this year get processed before the other boxes mentioned above. And even amongst donors, the ones who contributed more money get priority over other donors. It will be interesting to see how many people end up in the donor boxes, and how that affects everyone else in the process.

Just for interest, the graph below gives you an idea of when people submitted their order forms in 2006:

The bulk seemed to drop their forms off in the final three hours or so before the deadline. Last year, box 66 out of 75 was randomly drawn as the starting point. My friend and I had forms in boxes 21 and 49, and we didn't get only 3 out of the 60 films we selected (but then we didn't pick many big name films).

If you ordered a 2008 Programme Book, you will get it in a tote bag filled with some goodies (while supplies last; I missed out last year, since they only had 3,000). If you just ordered one of the ticket packages or passes, you don't get a tote bag.

This year, you get:

A tote bag

A Stella Artois beer glass!

A 70g bag of Starbucks coffee (Caffe Verona Bold)

A box of 3 Lindt chocolates

A FedEx keychain with LED light

A Pizza Nova "mystery" gift card with an unknown amount of credit

A pamphlet for Toronto Life Square, with a map listing the stores and restuarants in the building

A pamphlet for Matignon restaurant

A complementary tour pass for Jackson-Triggs winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake

A sheet of 27 post-it tabs from Sun Life Financial, for use in bookmarking films you want to see in the Programme Book

A pamphlet from RBC outlining their association with director Deepa Mehta

I picked up my order book and my programme guide this morning. More info on that in a later post. I arrived at 9:00 AM, and there was already a line of about 150 people or so. It took me about 35 minutes to get through the line, although by that time the line was longer than when I first arrived. I'm guessing that at peak times today (likely around lunch and after work), it could take at least 45 minutes to an hour to get through the line, so leave yourself some time.

The pickup point is at street level, at the corner of Dundas and Victoria (the southeast corner of the Toronto Life Square building). The lineup snakes north up Victoria. I don't know if the pickup location will remain there for the rest of this week or if they will move it upstairs, but check with the festival volunteers there.

Speaking of which, a tip for newcomers. Before getting in any line, track down the festival volunteer usually at the head of the line, and verify that the line is the correct one for you to be in (you can identify the volunteers by their headsets or festival t-shirts). The festival doesn't always have someone at the end of the line (though they probably should) telling people what the line is for. There were a couple of guys behind me in line that didn't realize they had to have already purchased a ticket package.

Don't forget, you need your Envelope voucher and your 2008 Programme Book Voucher (if you bought one). Make sure you get an envelope, the advanced order book, and a copy of the official festival schedule, as you will need all three to complete your order. If you opted not to get the optional Programme Book, then you'll also need to get a yellow and a green highlighter.

Monday, August 25, 2008

For all those that have purchased ticket packages that entitle you to participate in the advanced ordering process, that process starts tomorrow (Tuesday, August 26, 2008). You can pick up your order book and schedule at the Toronto Life Square box office at Yonge and Dundas starting at 9:00 AM. Note that I think previous festival communications said 10:00 AM, but the site right now indicates a 9:00 AM start for the box office; however, the website will not have the schedule available until 10:00 AM.

Note you don't have to show up first thing in the morning; because of the way the lottery procedure works, you don't necessarily gain any advantage getting your completed order handed in early. But don't forget, you only have until this Friday, August 29 at 1:00 PM to return your completed order book to the Toronto Life Square box office.

Don't forget to bring the Envelope Voucher you should have received in the mail. If you bought a programme book, you should also bring the 2008 Programme Book Pick-up Voucher you received in the mail. If you want to buy a programme book now, you should be able to do that at the various box offices, but it's not strictly necessary for the ordering process. Regardless of whether or not you have a programme book, you will need to pick up the official festival schedule, as that is the only thing that will tell you when a film is playing, and in what theatre. This is critical when completing your order book.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

As of 12:03 AM on Monday, August 25, there are still premium tickets available for showings at the Visa Screening Room and Roy Thomson Hall. Update: read commenter Nicole's note at the bottom of this post; some of the screenings that don't show as sold out may not let you purchase tickets anyway.

Tickets are $37.38 each, and you are limited to four per order. You can purchase:

Online, at http://tiff08.ca/. Click the Buy Tickets link at the top right of any page on the site.

By phone at (416) 968-FILM or toll-free at 1-877-968-FILM.

As of August 23, at the Manulife Centre box office at Bloor and Bay Streets.

As of August 26, also at the Toronto Life Square box office at Yonge and Dundas.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Just a reminder, if you want to get tickets for films showing at Roy Thomson Hall and/or the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre, they go on sale to the general public on August 23, 2008, starting at 10:00 AM.

Your options for purchasing tickets are:

Online, at http://tiff08.ca. Click the Buy Tickets link at the top right of any page on the site.

By phone at (416) 968-FILM or toll-free at 1-877-968-FILM.

As of August 23, at the Manulife Centre box office at Bloor and Bay Streets.

As of August 26, also at the Toronto Life Square box office at Yonge and Dundas.

As of September 3, also at the Roy Thomson Hall box office.

Tickets are $37.38 each ($18.57 for same-day students and seniors), and you are limited to four tickets per film. They recommend you check back later if the film you want is sold out, as they may release more seats as the festival goes on.

The films at Roy Thomson Hall are the galas, which are generally the films with the biggest buzz or the biggest stars. For example, the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, is a gala. If you really, really want to see these types of films or these celebrities, the premium ticketing is probably your best bet; and this year, that holds true even for pass/package holders in the advanced lottery, as most passes/packages will NOT allow you to select films at RTH or the Elgin this year.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

If you bought any of the packages or passes that entitle you to participate in the advanced ticket lottery (see the official festival website, or this post - http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/ticket-packages.html - for more information), then you should be getting ready for the process to begin next week.

You should have received a letter in the mail that includes an Envelope Voucher, a Drop-off Voucher, a Pick-up Voucher, and if you bought one, a 2008 Programme Book Pick-up Voucher, if you placed an order before August 1, 2008. If you ordered after that date, you need to pick up your vouchers at the Manulife Centre box office from August 1 to 25. After August 25, you must pick up vouchers at the Toronto Life Square box office.

Starting Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 9:00 AM, you turn in your Envelope Voucher to get the order book and envelope needed to make your selections. If you have a 2008 Programme Book Pick-up Voucher, then you turn that one in to get the thick, full-colour book with complete film descriptions. Remember to also pick up the official festival schedule, which lists the times and theatres for each film, as you will need this as well.

Ensure you have a green and a yellow highlighter, your order book, and the official film schedule. Start picking which films you want to see, when you want to see them, and an alternate selection for each film in case your first choice is sold out when they get around to processing your order. Full tips will be posted after next Tuesday, but you can check out last year's guidelines here: http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-heck-do-i-fill-out-order-form-2007.html

Note that you can make notes in the order book to help the festival volunteers interpret your order. But don't get too complicated, as it will just confuse people and increase the chance of mistakes. My friend found out that if you put your phone number on your order, the festival may call you if they have trouble figuring out what you want; but be forewarned - they process all day and all night, so you could end up getting a call at 4 in the morning!

Ensure you drop off your completed order book, with the Drop-off Voucher, before 1:00 PM on Friday, August 29. If you drop off after that time, you will miss the advanced draw, and your order will be processed after everyone else.

After 1:00 PM on the 29th, the festival will start processing orders. This year, they will start with orders from festival donors (those who donated $250 or more to festival before August 8, 2008). After that, they will randomly draw to determine which box of the remainder of the orders will be processed first. Check out this post (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/advanced-ticketing.html) for a description of how this part of the process works.

The festival processes all the orders over the weekend. If you provided your e-mail address on the order book, the festival will generally e-mail you to tell you which of your selections you got, and which ones you didn't.

Starting Monday, September 1, 2008, at 10:00 AM, you can pick up your completed orders at the Toronto Life Square box office, with your Pick-up Voucher. If you were notified that you received all your picks, then don't bother showing up first thing on the 1st, as you will be stuck in a huge line for no reason. If you didn't get all your picks, then you should line up, as you will usually have the opportunity to select alternate films that day; but you'll have to first line up to get your order form and used tickets first, then line up again to make alternate selections.

Sit back and wait for the festival to begin on the 4th!

Remember to go to the correct box office; check the festival site for exact info. If you go to the wrong location, they may not be able to help you, will not be able to take your order, or will not have your completed order on hand.

Now, if you didn't buy a package or pass that allows you to participate in the lottery, you can still see movies at the festival. Your options at this point are:

Buy premium tickets for films at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room starting August 23 (or August 20 if you donated more than a $1,000).

Buy regular tickets for all other theatres starting September 3, 2008. Note that even films that premiere at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room will re-screen in other festival theatres later in the week, for which you can buy regular tickets.

If you can't buy advanced tickets, try the box office the day of the showing.

If you can't buy same-day tickets, try the Rush Line at each theatre. The box office will sell any tickets where ticket holders don't show up 15 minutes before the screening or if extra tickets become available, to people in the Rush Line on a first-come, first-served basis. On occasion, ticket holders that don't want to see the film or that have extra tickets, may go down the line offering their extras; I've been on both ends of this before.

Some things to remember when selecting films, regardless of how you get tickets:

Remember to account for the time it will take to get from one film to another. The films may be in completely different theatres; it can take a fair bit of time to get from the Scotiabank to the Varsity theatre no matter if you take a cab, subway, or walk. Check out my festival map here to get an idea of where all the theatres are in downtown Toronto: http://www.riwasa.com/2008filmfestmap.htm.

Films may not start or end on time. On occasion, films may be delayed starting because they are waiting for the cast or director, or they may have the odd technical difficulty. Films may not end on time because they will have Q&A sessions after many of them, which then in turn may occasionally affect the start of the next film in that theatre.

In Conversation with Kathryn Bigelow: a discussion with the director of Near Dark, Point Break, Blue Steel, Strange Days, K-19: The Widowmaker, among others. Bigelow's latest film, The Hurt Locker, will be screening this year at the festival.

The People Speak: a discussion with Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, with Matt Damon, Chris Moore (who worked with Damon and Ben Affleck on Project Greenlight), and Josh Brolin.

You should be able to purchase tickets for these presentations by selecting them in the advanced lottery (if you have one of the ticket packages that allows you to participate), or by buying tickets starting September 3.

The festival announced additional galas and films for the Special Presentation programme.

The first showing of Gala films takes place at Roy Thomson Hall. To see films there, you must buy individual tickets when they go on sale to the general public on August 23 (August 20 if you are a donor of $1,000 or more). Note that Gala films usually have a second showing that takes place at other theatres at the festival; for those showings, you can purchase tickets starting September 3, or you can select those (non-Roy Thomson Hall) showings if you bought a package that lets you participate in the advanced lottery.

Special Presentation films are part of the normal festival; tickets for those go on sale September 3, or you can select them if you are in the advanced lottery.

Nothing But the Truth: from director Rod Lurie, and starring Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda, David Schwimmer, Noah Wyle and Angela Bassett. Sounds like the film was inspired by the Valerie Plame affair.

Pride and Glory: starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich and Jennifer Ehle. The plot of this film, following a family on both sides of the law, sounds quite similar to 2007's We Own the Night.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

I've updated my festival map for 2008: check the Map of Festival Theatres link in the Links section on the right-side of the page. It has been updated to include the new box office at Toronto Life Square, and the AMC theatres there as well. I've also updated the list of Tim Hortons and Starbucks (with wireless hotspots).

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Some other blogs covering the festival that are well worth reading are below. Some of the bloggers are in the industry, others are just fans, but they've all been covering the festival for a while now. I always look forward to reading them to see what other people like and don't like at the festival, see what's got good buzz, and find out what else is going on, since it's impossible to catch everything. These blogs are great because they provide a more personal view of the festival, which is a nice contrast to the professional media outlets.

Some additional resources you can use to help plan your festival include:

TOfilmfest.ca: http://www.tofilmfest.com/. Very good way to search through the list of films by country, language, director, programme.

TIFF Reviews: http://www.tiffreviews.com/2008/. Aggregates news from a variety of different sources, including both conventional media and blogs. Also has a good listing of all the films, and discussion forums.

Uncertainty, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Olivia Thirlby, and Lynn Collins, in which the two outcomes are shown after a young couple flips a coin to decide what to do about the girl's pregnancy. This reminds me of another festival film I watched back in 2005, Spiele Leben (You Bet Your Life), in which six different outcomes of the same story play out.

The festival announced the film for the closing night gala: Stone of Destiny, from writer/directory Charles Martin Smith, and starring Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings), and Brenda Fricker. Based on a true story, the film follows four Scottish university students who decide to steal an ancient Scot artifact that had been taken by the English in 1296, and return it to Scotland. The film had its world premiere back in June at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; this will be the North American premiere.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

If you want to attend this year's festival, but haven't gotten around to looking at buying anything yet, here are your current options:

Buy a package so that you can participate in the advanced ticketing lottery that starts on August 26th. This is the best alternative for people that want to make their own decisions about what to see, and want to see a variety of films. Descriptions of the packages can be found here (http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/ticket-packages.html).

Buy a package that has pre-selected films; in this case you don't participate in the lottery, as the festival selects films for you. This is a good choice if you don't want to choose films or aren't sure what to see.

Buy premium tickets for films at Roy Thomson Hall or the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin theatre, starting August 20th if you are a festival donor, or August 23rd at 10:00 AM for all others. This is for anyone who wants to be guaranteed to see the big films with big-name stars, or films that have or will get a lot of buzz (critical or otherwise).

Buy general tickets to all films starting September 3rd at 7:00 AM. This is good for anyone who just wants to see a film or two (although there's no guarantee there will be a lot of tickets available for what you want to see), or is going for the first time to the festival.

For those who choose option 1, all the packages that allow you to particpate in the lottery are still available. Some new wrinkles this year for those people:

You can't select films at the Visa Screening Room or Roy Thomson Hall (previously, it was only galas at Roy Thomson Hall that were restricted)

People who have donated money to the festival get preferential treatment at various stages of the process; it looks like you have to donate at least $250 for this to happen.

Pickups and dropoffs occur at the box office at Toronto Life Square, the building at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas, that houses the new AMC theatre and Future Shop.

For option 1, some important dates to keep in mind:

Tuesday, August 26: can pick up advanced order books, programme books, and official festival schedules from the Festival Box Office at Toronto Life Square, at 10 Dundas Street E, third floor. Note that this is a new location from previous years. DO NOT go to the old College Park location, as that is not being used this year. You should also bring the envelope voucher that you will receive in the mail after purchasing a package online.

All order books must be deposited at the Toronto Life Square location before 1:00 PM on Friday, August 29th to participate in the lottery. Any books dropped off after that time will be processed after all other orders.

Monday, September 1 starting at 10:00 AM you can pick up your filled orders. If you receive an e-mail from the festival saying you got all your choices, then I would recommend that you do NOT show up first thing in the morning, as there will be long wait. If you didn't receive all your picks, then you should line up in the morning, as you will receive ticket vouchers in place of your missed picks. You can then move to another line to immediately use those vouchers to pick other films that are still available; alternatively, you can wait to use those vouchers during the festival, but there's no advantage to doing that.

I decided to try something new this year, and post to Twitter during the festival for quick updates, in addition to the longer blog postings with film reviews. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/tifftalk.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The festival also announced the Midnight Madness lineup. These films are usually more off-beat or cult in nature. While the premiers take place at midnight, there are usually subsequent showings during the day later in the festival. The films can be found here:

Sports, politics, music, the environment, and fashion are all represented in the selected films. Some of the ones that piqued my interest include:

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World, from China, about a 5000-seat restaurant that provides a look at the face of modern China. Probably a good follow up after watching the Olympics this year.

Food, Inc, from the US, about how big business has affected what we eat.

It Might Get Loud, from the US, about the electric guitar, featuring Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White.

The Real Shaolin, a Chinese/US co-production, about students studying martial arts at the Shaolin temple in China.

Yes Madam, Sir, an Australian/Indian co-production, about the first woman police office in India.

Larry Charles' and Bill Maher's new film, Religulous, will also be shown at the festival. Both were at last year's festival discussing the film and showing clips. True to Maher's irreverant style, the film will likely be a challenging look at organized religion. Details from that panel can be found here: